Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has completed the acquisition and integration of the ANZ Investment Lending portfolio, adding around A$558 million to its margin lending business Leveraged Equities. The bank’s total margin lending portfolio value is now $1.9 billion, with 37,000 customers on the books. Bendigo and Adelaide claims a leading position in margin lending, with a 13 per cent share. It said the integration of the ANZ portfolio was completed on schedule. Dharshini Mendez has been appointed chief financial officer of Novatti Group. Mendez has held senior finance roles at Wesfarmers, Telstra and Australia Post. Outgoing CFO Steven Stamboultgis will remain with the company as joint company secretary. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand says it will put in place a ‘framework’ for debt to income restrictions, despite the fact that the current housing downturn means there is now no immediate need for their implementation. It says there is a “significant chance that if the housing cycle turns and financial stability risks begin to rise, there would be insufficient time to put the framework in place” as banks have asked for a 12-month lead time to prepare their systems. The RBNZ estimates the system-wide costs of changes to Kiwi banks’ IT systems could be between NZ$1.25 million and $2.5 million, but says even if these costs were “significant” – for example, around $10 million – “this would be a small figure relative to the potential scale of both the financial stability benefits and allocative efficiency costs of DTI restrictions”.